Nintendo details 3DS eShop launch

Nintendo has finally revealed all the pertinent details of the launch of the 3DS eShop, set for official launch on June 6, the day before E3 starts in earnest.

First, the good news: over 350 DSiWare games will be available right from the start, and it will have a sleek new interface that will allow you to see up to six dual-screen screenshots and six dual-screen videos for a given game. Currently, there’s no option to download a demo of a game, though Nintendo is thinking of adding that feature in a later update.

Now for the bad news: there will only be five new games available for the launch. There will be three Game Boy games, Super Mario Land, Alleyway, and Radar Mission, along with a free 3D Pokedex and a rebuilt 3D version of Excitebike from the NES, which will be free for the first 30 days and $5.99 afterward.

Alleyway and Radar Mission will both be priced at $2.99 with Super Mario Land priced at $3.99. We don’t know yet of any specific pricing structure for the eShop, though we do know that no titles will be priced below $1.99, other than free titles.

Finally, unlike nearly every other online shop, there are still no plans for allowing a person to redeem a code for a title. In addition to making it sound as if these titles will be tied to an individual system, rather than a user’s account, it also means that publishers will not be able to give away copies of games as prizes to customers. (You’ll be able to transfer any DSiWare purchases to the system through a Club Nintendo process of some sort, though.)